The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-09-19
ON THE MOSQUITO COAST.
The Snappy Little Republic on the Carib
bean Sea-Facts and Figures.

The Snappy Little Republic on the Carib-
bean ea-Facts and Figures
Philadelphia Ii mes.
The liveliest mosquito to be found buzzing
around the business houses of Philadelphia dur
ing this week of centennial commemoration Will
be John Il. Simmons. who con, comes al the the
way from the town of Blueheds,. the
trading center of the Mosquito Reservation'
which is a part of the Republic of Nicaragua.
Philadelphia and has been located at Bluehelds
since 1880. He is enthusiastic over the future
of his adopted country the most energetic
boomer of new Western town with q half
dozen corner lots for SALE The Mosquito Reser-
walton lies on the eastern coast of Nicaragua.
running lengthwise with the Caribbean Sea. and
while part of the parent country since the
withdrawal of tie British protectorate. has Its
own government and laws.
The chief executive is g. W. A. Hendy, the
hereditary chief of the Mosquito Indians. with
Charles Patterson, of Indian descent as the vice.
president Attorney general James w. Cuth-
bert is Jamaica creole and Judge OF Supreme
Court John Taylor is native. with the advant-
age of an American education. Besides these
officials mentioned there collector OF the
port three land commissioners and twenty mag
istrates. eve have the best and simplest form
of government in the world" says MT simmons,
land our laws. what we have, are framed on the
English common law. Our magistrates. our
only court have but little to do, crime is
almost unknown. except among the Spaniards,
who, rule, are not settlers, but merely tran
sient visitors.
s'Up to the last year or So" continued Mr..
Simmons, ''our main trade has been in rubber.
but that having failed US to some extent we
turned our attention to banana raising and ex.
portation The soil of the reservation is well
adapted to that purpose, being alluviai and
similar to that of lower Louisiana There are
now three steamers running regularly between
Bluefelds and New Orleans, two to Philadelphia
and two to New York and our trade will be
doubled in the nexttwelve months Our bananas
row average between 10000 and $4,000
month and we import about $4,000 packages
every month, chiefly from the States 1t is this
wonderful advance in trade which has gwen rise
ri, tim, cuth NioaY 0I1Q al
Spanish American governments whenever they
see people prospecting they want to take about
IS peg cent of the profits tor taxes. inls we
object to, now free OF all debt. the
government is conducted economically. we pay
an annual head tax of So and small mercantile
tax The duties on imports are per cent al
valorem except upon rum, powder and tobacco,
upon which the duties are specific.
Now the Nicaraguan government has
located military post near our best banana
tracts. what consider to be Mosquito terri
tory. By the treaty of Managua the reservation
was to extend inland to 81 degrees 10 minutes
longitude. west, but unfortunately there has
been no survey made, and the exact line is uE-
determined. Emperor Francis Joseph OF Aus
tria was named as arbitrator In 1879 to interpret
the Manaeua treaty, and he decided that the re-
public lis not entitled to regulate the trade OF
Mosquito Indians or to levy duties On goods I'M
ported into exported from the territory re-
served to the Mosquito indians. PROBABLY NOT
ten persons in the reservation knew the terms OF
the treaty and IN order to Lave mouthpiece In
which to assert our rights and privileges we nave
started a newspaper at Blueheids
Here are the four copies we had issued up 70
the time of my departure, triumphantiy ex-
claimed Mt simmons. as ne proauGeh i h. eu,,
tons. ''Oh, yes, we print 1t IN Engllsh, because
everybody speaks English in the reservation"
The Mosquito Coast Courier is seven-column,
four-page paper of excellent Typographical ap-
pearance and really remarkable under the cir
cumstances under which it is gotten ont I'VE
made up our minds" remarked Mr. Simmons
s'that needed organ. and We got together
the type and Franklin press as soon as the
steamer could bring it to u.s." Edward James,
our editorn- chief, and tho promoter OF the
Courier had some experience as journalist
and knew a little about type setting, but other-
wise we were without expert help. l do not
know what we should have done had it not been
for a young English lad from Kingston who
knew something about printing. We worked, l
can tell you. and we got along pretty well In set
ting the paper up, but we failed altogether when
we came to distribute the type.
1.-THE first number was issued on July ~, and
we succeeded in getting out three more, but il
practical printer had not been sent to us from
New York am afraid the whole Office would
have been in pi. As it is we are all right now.
and with 500 subscribers and a good share of ad-
vertisine the Courier will boom along as the
recognized organ of the Mosquito reservation.
1--WE have about two hundred and fifty Amer
leans in the reservation" said Mr. Simmons,
"but our total population it is difficult to even
approximate there has never been census
taken But that will come in time. just now
we too busy with our bananas
river sixty miles north of Bluefelds, one
hundred thousand plants have becn set
out and they have started to yield Inc ruo-
Der bleeders are coming in from the interior and
are taking up land or hiring out as laborers on
the banana plantations. and everything points to
an era of prosperity. Bluehelds must remain
the chief city of the reservation, and the Amerl-
cans fast becoming the leading men OF the
country. American gold is coming rapidly into
vogue as the circulating medium in place of the
Peruvian SOL which is worth only about 40 cents
on the dollar. We have. now that we have
live newspaper. about everything we want ex-
cept hotel That / am having plans prepared
for nd will "a guests
royai welcome when they come little but
glorious country"
SPEED ON THE RAIL.